Sideshow: Author Rowling offering adult fare

Sure she's nervous, but

J.K. Rowling

is more excited than afraid about the release on Thursday of her first attempt to write for grown-ups, her new novel

The Casual Vacancy

.

"It's been five years [since the last book] - and this is a very different kind of book - but actually I feel quite excited," Rowling, 47, tells USA Today. She concedes some fans will be upset she's not plugging away on more Harry Potter-ishian novels.

"But that's not the way to produce good work," she says. "So as an author I need to write what I need to write." Book industry folks say the novel could be the year's biggest publishing event. Or not.

"I don't think everyone will like the book. But I'm proud of this book. I like this book. It is what it's meant to be," Rowling says. "If people don't like it, well, that's how it should be, isn't it? That's art. . . . And I can live with that."

Dina Lohan

says Manhattan's high pollen count is to blame for the suffering her innocent lil' girl

Lindsay Lohan

suffered Monday when she was rushed to the hospital for bronchial asthma. "She's feeling better," Dina told the New York Daily News on Tuesday. We suggest petitions be drawn up to make life easier for LiLo by banning all plants from the island.

She survived

Russell Brand

, a feat that should earn her a Nobel Prize. Alas,

Katy Perry

's not flying to Oslo, but she has been picked as Billboard's Woman of the Year, a recognition given annually to a "trailblazing female recording artist."

Perry, who was married to Brand for 14 months, has dominated the Billboard charts with her LP Teenage Dream, which has sold 2.5 mil copies to date. "Katy Perry broke into the industry not even five years ago," said Billboard's Bill Werde, "and has already accomplished more than most artists can hope for in an entire career."

. . . "Diamonds" will be unveiled Wednesday, says famed radio host

Elvis Duran

. What should fans expect from the new song? Duran asks the Barbadian beauty.

"My fans love great music," R says in an impossibly deep bit of self-analysis. "I want to make it interesting and fresh and ahead of what's on the radio." And the song's feel, its sound? "You're not sad or dancing, you're happy and hippy. It's laid back, but it's hopeful."

In a feat every bit as glorious as it sounds, Bravo's

The Real Housewives of New Jersey

finale on Sunday was its highest-rated episode, drawing 3.4 mil viewers.

Three-time Emmy winner Neil Patrick Harris, who plays a telepathic giant insect whisperer in the Starship Troopers movies, is writing a volume of "imaginative nonfiction that delivers an interactive, nonlinear reading experience." The book is due in spring 2014.

Some guy named Sean Lowe has been anointed (with sacred oils and Himalayan chants) the next star of The Bachelor, ABC says. Lowe was hot for Emily Maynard on last season's Bachelorette, or acted like he was.

Local indie TV station WMCN44, which has been dominated by infomercials for years, is undergoing a major face-lift. This month it began airing syndicated shows such as

All in the Family

,

Cold Case Files

, and

'Til Death

. It also plans to air local college football games.

And in October, the station will add a lineup of original news magazines, sports and talk shows hosted by area broadcast veterans Phil Andrews, Dom Giordano, Dawn Stensland, Don Tollefson, and Lou Tilley, the station has announced. It also will air local college football games.

What channel is it on and what kind of shows does it air? For info visit www.wmcn.tv/.